1 down, 5 to go!

I love D-III March Madness, even women's March Madness.

The Lady Falcons advanced to tomorrow's second round NCAA tournament game against St. Lawrence, defeating Cabrini by a score of 63-34, in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Looking at the game on paper, based on things like results against common opponents, strength of schedule, etc, the game definitely looked like a mismatch in favor of Messiah. However, in the NCAAs, you generally play teams you know nothing about, and in a win or go home format, you never want to take any opponent for granted, even as a fan, so I wasn't exactly feeling totally comfortable at tip off time. Most of the lingering doubts I had were erased after Cabrini's first 2 or 3 possessions, when it became abundantly clear that they were going to be hard pressed to score 40 points against Messiah's aggressive man to man defense. It was evident from the get go that Messiah had a clear advantage in athleticism at pretty much every position, so even though Cabrini started out with some pretty good defense of their own, you knew it was just going to be a matter of time before Messiah pulled away. And sure enough, led by that stifling defense and a very balanced offensive attack, the Falcons pulled out to a 40-14 halftime lead, holding Cabrini to 28% shooting, while shooting over 50% from the floor themselves. The second half was predictably uneventful, as Messiah took their foot off the gas pretty early, and cruised to the final 29 point margin.

It was really a perfect scenario for the first of back to back games. Messiah was able to use their considerable depth, with no player playing over 24 minutes, and 11 players who played at least 11. The ladies should have plenty left in the tank for tomorrow night's game, particularly when contrasted with St. Lawrence, who only played 8 players and had 4 players go over 30 minutes, including two who played the whole game, in defeating William Patterson by a score of 64-57. Unfortunately, I can't give much more of a scouting report on St. Lawrence, as I was only in the gym for about the last minute of the first game.

The second round of the tournament has tripped Messiah up each of the last two seasons, so it seems quite likely that tomorrow will be a battle as well. I'm really pulling for this team (not that I haven't really pulled for every Messiah team), because in my mind they are clearly the best team Messiah has ever fielded, and yes, that includes the team that was the national runner up in 2001, back when I was but a junior in college. That team was a good team, but really just got hot at the right time. The current Messiah bunch, led by All-American Nikki Lobach, has considerably better athletes across the board, and unbelievable depth. It's difficult to really know anything about what lies ahead in the tournament given the regional nature of D-III basketball, but from my limited perspective, it seems like the bracket sets up very well for the Lady Falcons, if they can break through their 2nd round wall. Hopefully Messiah's experience (4 senior starters, 3 of which are basically 3 year starters) will finally carry the day and avoid another 2nd round exit in front of the home crowd.

Go Falcons!